Abstrakt
Bacterial protein toxins perfected through evolution in pathogenic bacteria play an important role in infectious diseases and share the ability to target various intracellular proteins to modulate host immune responses. Several bacterial toxins and their nontoxic mutants have been intensively studied over the past decades to harness their abilities to enter host cells and deliver drugs for a direct elimination of cancer cells, to carry antigenic epitopes to stimulate adaptive T cell responses, and to boost immunity as adjuvants.
Some of these toxins may be utilized in the diagnostics of cancer. Whereas the immunotherapeutic potential of some bacterial toxins is currently being evaluated in various phases of clinical cancer trials, the medical use of others needs to be further established.
The major achievement in toxin-targeted immunotherapy is a derivative of lipopolysaccharide monophosphoryl lipid A, muramyl dipeptide derivative Mifamurtide, and Corynebacterium diphtheriae diphtheria toxin-based immunotoxin denileukin diftitox. However, some limitations of the use of bacterial toxins in human immunotherapy remain to be overcome